Gender equality in Peacebuilding and Statebuilding

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop practical programming guidance
on gender-responsive interventions in international efforts in support
of peacebuilding (PB) and statebuilding (SB) processes, drawing on the
DFID paper “Building Peace States and Societies: DFID Practice Paper”,
(DFID 2010). For this it draws on a review of the literature on the
state of knowledge regarding gender perspectives in the different
components of peacebuilding and statebuilding (see Domingo et al. 2013),
as well as on political economy and gender analysis approaches in order
to develop a set of principles and guidance for policy-makers and
advisors to better inform programme design in peacebuilding and
statebuilding operations from a gender perspective.

The Guidance Paper is structured as follows:

First, the paper draws attention to the reasons why integrating gender
into mainstream peacebuilding and statebuilding efforts has intrinsic
value in and also adds value to these efforts.

Second the paper presents an overarching theory of change to inform
programming for gender-responsive peacebuilding and statebuilding,
addressing the different spheres of change and component features of
state society relations.

Third, the paper following, the theory of change framework, provide
specific practical guidance on how to approach gender-responsive PBSB,
combining political economy methods with gender analysis. This
analytical approach is useful to develop guidance on the necessary
building blocks to integrate gender meaningfully into policy and
practice. Given the variability and breadth of peacebuilding and
statebuilding in FCAS it is important for programming to be able to
respond to the very specific gendered experiences of conflict and
fragility which are also context specific.

And finally, the paper presents sector specific guidance on how to
approach programming, taking account of the theory of change framework
and lessons learned from the evidence base. This is premised not on
building prescriptive blueprints, but on providing a framework for
analytical reasoning to guide the choice of decisions about entry
points and programme inputs relevant to the particular constellation
of political economy factors and gender relations in any given
context.